As the playwright (not compiler) of “Children of the April Rain” I thought I might give you the facts (and the special story) this play tells.
The uniqueness of it is that the memoirs of nine of those who lived it are written together to form this epic, true, account. I came up with that idea upon learning of the nine of them — all but two were in S. Vietnam during the historic Fall of Saigon.
The two in the United States: 1. Lana Noone and her late husband, Byron, metaphors for couples awaiting the arrival of their adoptees in New York and on Long Island; and 2. Col. Robert Kane, Commander of The Presidio in San Francisco (who gave the “pirate” plane, flying out of the darkness after taking off against the Tower’s orders back in Saigon) permission to land here in America with the first 57 children.
This first flight and its publicity forced the President and his men into action and while this play is the back story, their action would eventually become known as Operation Babylift.
Those whose memoirs became “Children of the April Rain” are:
Cherie Clark, in Saigon to get her own adoptees, returned and reopened a closed orphanage there when she discovered babies dying in buckets in a hovel in the center of town.
Cherie was not a “humanitarian worker” but a liberal, a well-read housewife with children of her own, who played the Viet Cong in college and who worked for Mother (now Saint) Theresa later in life.
In short, Cherie is the person who began it all.
Tia Keevil is in real life not Cherie Clark’s daughter — she was/is an adoptee from Cherie’s care to a family in the USA and has remained involved.
Ross Meador, a 19 year-old hippie just showed up for the escape and stayed — the expert of them all when called for; even standing up to the S. Vietnamese authorities.
Alyce “Sally” Vinyard — one of the most compelling stories — was the grandmother, assigned to run the Processing Center near Tan Son Nhut Air Field who got literally thousands of South Vietnamese loyalists and secret agents out in advance of the arriving Viet Cong!
There were Sister Marie Therese LeBlanc — a Nun who made five trips back and forth from Saigon to San Francisco with plane loads of infants, toddlers and kids (eight of them kidnapped in San Francisco); and Sgt. Phillip Wise — the Medic who flew in on the C-5A to evacuate hundreds of children and lived through the C-5A crash shortly after takeoff to tell about it.
The child you mention (there are two, actually) was Thanh Jeffery Gahr — who outran the MP’s to escape military service at age 11 and the crippled child, Phuong, struggling to also get out or be conscripted.
There was Leann Thieman, an Iowa housewife who flew straight into the War , struggling to get out with, not six as planned, but assisting to evacuate 200 including an adoptee of her own.
That first pirate plane was under the control of Ed Daly, president of World Airways (thought to be a part of the CIA’s legendary Air America).
His DC-8 “felt” its way into a liftoff after dark on April 2, 1975 against the tower’s orders to stop and with the runway lights shut down completely!
Daly is likely the most colorful character in the play. He played by his own rules.
The hook on this story is the virtuosity of these people — their courage at this exact point in history.
That is what the play “Children of the April Rain” is about.
If any of your writers would like, I am certain the co-authors would be happy to speak with you by simply returning this email.
William Bryant Doty
The Playwright
